The Kingdom of Heaven
by PurpleMoon3
Summary: A collection of Septerra Core ficlet beginnings. Thoughts of where the story could have gone, characters, and general what-ifs. None remotely complete.
1. Of Noble Blood

The Kingdom of Heaven

Septerra Core (PC game)

Summary: A collection of Septerra Core ficlet beginnings. Thoughts of where the story could have gone, characters, and general what-ifs. None remotely complete. If you've played the game, feel free to adopt a plot and post a continuation, just be sure to send me a link!

"Of Noble Blood"

For all his training and superiority of blood, Doskias found himself pressed back by the motley group of peasants. Selena, the traitor, stood back and watched with tear filled eyes as he found himself loosing ground. The descendant of Marduk dodged a volley of impossibly strong bullets -the girl's core capabilities must be unusually strong- and made a slash at the pest from Wind City. The blonde managed to summon a shield to take the brunt of the attack, just as yet another group of miscreants charged in.

They looked to the blue-haired chit with the gun, and on some silent signal began attacking. Interesting.

He danced around them, starting to sweat, and knew he would have to end things quickly. He would not let his hard work, his birthright, be for nought! Snarling and half-mad, he pushed his limbs to their limit and charged at the gun wielding woman. His mad dash broke through her defenses, and as he ducked a lighting charged wrench he slashed at her exposed stomach.

Gut wounds tended to be fatal without immediate treatment. With their leader down he would be able to finish off the disheartened rebels easily and then deal with the whore traitor. He smirked at the thought of his victory, already feeling the angry core energy wielded by his enemies begin to dissipate in shock and horror.

The chosen looked at his work as the girl fell back, blood splattering, and his smirk melted. She bore the markings of Kyra, but did not expose them as the prostitutes of the lower shells did.

"Maya!!!" The boy with the mohawk screamed in rage and fear as he rushed forward to catch the girl.

Doskias stood and watched the scene, all too aware of the bounty hunter and robot continuing to watch him, and wondered. Now that he wasn't actively trying to kill them all, the girl looked vaguely familiar. The set of her cheekbones, the tint of her hair, it all seemed familiar and he couldn't stop staring at the tattoos he'd exposed to the world.

Selena stepped close to him, reaching. "Doskias, please..."

Old memories of hours spent pouring over Chosen genealogy charts slowly made themselves known. Was it possible? Selena was still babbling; he backhanded her and gripped his sword as his second wind came on. His backup would arrive momentarily. "I will give you peasants one final chance to surrender."

The blonde swordsman looked up from where he crouched trying to stem the blood flow. "Never! You killed Bowman, ordered the destruction of Armstrong and the border towns... and what you did to Ankara and Jinam! You will pay!"

Their blades met with a clash and the other blonde, the military girl, stood in a guard position over their downed leader. The Underlost creature, inhumane thing that it was, seemed to grasp the situation and threw itself at the Chosen knives flying in a rage. Doskias panted as he held them at bay. "Think, fool. If you don't surrender, the girl will surely die. Can you beat me _and_ get her medical attention in time?"

Corgan's eyes widened a fraction in thought and emotions played across his face as his actions slowed. Doskias capitalized on the opening and struck, disarming the man and leaving a gash across his chest. It wasn't fatal; a pity. The Underlost was dealt with easily with a quick parry and a water attack stunned the creature long enough for the calvary to arrive.

"Lord Doskias!" His soldiers moved in, surrounding the rebels who put up a token resistance. Doskias turned and glared at the computer consul. Despite building the lens, he'd taken too much time and missed his opportunity. He'd have to make a new lens at the least.

"Sir! What shall we do with the girl?" A masked soldier asked with a salute.

Doskias turned to see the unconscious girl -no, woman- he'd injured being moved onto a floating stretcher. She intrigued him, for the moment. "Take her to the medical bay, I shall hold you responsible if she dies."

----

"You're positive?" The now undisputed head of the Chosen asked in mild surprise. The doctor had just told him what he had fantasized on a whim. They stood around a healing chamber, the blue haired woman -Maya, her companions had said- nearly naked within.

The medical drone made a sound much like a groan of annoyance. "I have run the test no less than ten times, she was bleeding enough for it, and surely _you_ know how accurate our DNA mapping is. While I cannot say with certainty how many generations she is, this girl _is_ a direct descendant of Kyra from the line of Karin."

"That line died out over a hundred years ago." He would know, he had throughly researched all noble bloodlines.

"So they did. You recall the familial dispute they had resulting in the death of just about every member? I believe there is a footnote, somewhere, that a branch of the family fled before hand."

Doskias paused in thought. He may have read that somewhere, as a footnote, but to leave the uppermost shell would have been considered death back then. He smiled and tapped his finger against the glass of the healing chamber as he thought and watched the woman heal. "Will there be any permanent damage?"

"It was a clean cut, sir. She will be fully functional within a month, able to move on her own in less." Deciding it was best if it found some other subject to work on, the medical robot quickly left the room as the doors shut behind it with a soft hiss.

His eyes traced the line of her cheek; the soft curves of her hips. Her blood was strong, her power was strong, and now that the dirty and patched up armor was off he could see her beauty. "You may have forgotten your blood, my little Kyra, but you never forgot the teachings." He recalled the fire that burned in her eyes during the battle, the hatred and the sadness. She wanted to know why he would kill all those people. "Kyra was love and light, she was soft." But this woman wasn't nearly as soft as the angel. She was willing to kill, willing to do what was needed to see through what she believed was right. "I'll just have to try again. I'll have the Kingdom of Heaven, and I'll have You."

His fingers tapped the glass rhythmically as he smirked to himself. It wouldn't be too hard to bring her to side, he imagined, not when he had her friends to work with. It would be slow going though, he couldn't afford alienating her any further. "I'll have to get rid of the Wind Guard, and Selena. Maybe the little girl too. It shouldn't be too hard to buy the bounty hunter and his pirate friend, I'll have to do some digging about the boy and that... dog thing. The Underlost can be killed outright, if not returned it it's shell." He continued smiling down at his unconscious bride-to-be, they weren't going anywhere.

(end scene)


	2. Insane Genius

**The Kingdom of Heaven**

**"Insane Genius"**

**Summary- In which Maya speculates on her best friend.**

She didn't like robots. Well, she liked robots just fine, Runner was a good one she could count on to watch her back in a fight and the worker-bots were always polite, so she had to say she liked robots. What Maya didn't like was the way the hard shiny material they were made of tended to resist her bullets, only one or two of a burst getting past it to screw with the sensitive insides.

She didn't have the almost instinctual skill that Grubb had (she could make repairs to her own weapon but never during the confusion of battle) how the mechanic wiz managed to run alongside his creations and make repairs fascinated her. She would also admit if asked, that she was a little bit jealous. A junker through and through, she could recognize a 43B converter from a 43F and even identify which wires would handle so much voltage, but she didn't know why. She could gather the parts together and say "This is what I need to make a water purifier", but if you asked her do it the thing would come out functional but sparking.

So she was a tiny bit jealous of people like Grubb who could look at a pile of junk and see all the working bits, that could instantly come up with a use for it and follow through.

Just a bit.

But back to the point at hand, she didn't like how robots were so damn resistive to her attacks! Maya calmed herself, blocked out the sound of explosions as Corgan's blade sheared through metal, and gathered energy. Maya ignored the shrapnel that cut into her cheek as she opened fire on the pain in the ass Jinam robots blocking her way. A mixture of metal and core energy ripped into the sentinel bot, chewing through a leg and hitting some vital chip inside that resulted in it self-destructing.

Maya rocked back and wiped the sweat from her face; the robots seemed to favor hitting them with grenades and napalm. "You alright, Corgan?"

The Holy Guardsman of Wind City gave her a nod of confirmation while running his thumb along his sword to check for damages. They were only there on a rumor but it was the best bet they had. The two of them moved into a more organic looking part of the downed Jinam ship, Maya taking the lead but watching the blonde. He was trained for this sort of thing, after all.

"Hey." Maya paused, her ears picking up the faint sound of tinkering. "My Grubb senses are tingling." She turned the corner, noted a deactivated sentinel bot, and grumbled. The skinny mechanic was just sitting there oblivious to the danger around him and rummaging through a downed robots chest cavity. Maya arched an eyebrow. "Grubb."

"Huh? Oh, hey Maya." The man adjusted his goggles and ripped a piece of hardware from the robot before pocketing it. "This ship is awesome!"

She was sorely tempted to question him, to demand how he got passed all the robots that were guarding the ship and the _double _locked doors. She wanted to shake him. _What have you been doing? Do you know how much I was worried about you?! _ But she didn't. She just leaned against the wall and watched him salvage usable parts in true junker fashion. At least he wasn't trying to repair it; she didn't need supposedly dead combatants to get up and resume fighting.

Corgan shifted uncomfortably; he didn't like technology and with his sword he didn't need to be. Whatever it was made of, it cut through the tin soldiers like butter. "Maya, I think I can here reinforcements coming from elsewhere on the ship."

The woman pushed off the wall and tapped her best friend, mad genius that he was, on the shoulder. "We better get out of here."

Grubb nodded absently as he stood and looked around them at the treasure of parts. "If we-"

"Now, Grubb." She was already walking back the way they had come, green eyes watching for ambushes. "How did you get passed the locked doors?" She asked carefully as they passed through the double-door set and into the main entry room.

He shrugged. "They were locked? I thought the opening mechanism was just jammed..." Maya rolled her eyes. He probably hadn't even noticed the robots, or he had somehow bypassed them completely. How did a tall, gangly guy with a mohawk avoid notice?

Well, at least if they ran into any battles with the Jinam troopers the fight would end faster. She could probably get him to program them to shoot each other.

"Leave the gadgets alone, Grubb! We still need to find Runner." Maya shouted over her shoulder as Corgan hid a snicker and they left the ship. Grubb grinned sheepishly and jogged back. He may have been a genius, but she wasn't the least bit jealous of that bit of insanity he carried around with him.

End.


End file.
